Share this page
 

6/3/2021

  • Top stories
  • Sustainability

Uganda biogas project helps us on path to carbon neutrality

Climate change is the most important challenge of our generation. To help the world tackle it, we develop and supply innovative products and services that enable the shift towards sustainable energy carriers, such as heat pumps and hydrogen boilers, and work to reduce carbon emissions from our operations, suppliers, and products.

20Biogas_Uganda

Our ambition for 2025 is to halve our own operations’ carbon footprint from 2019 levels and we plan to be carbon-neutral as of 2021. This means reducing our energy use and expanding our use of renewable energy sources. We can’t  decrease our CO2 emissions overnight, however, so in the short term we need to offset the emissions we cannot avoid.

That’s why we’ve started investing in a project that helps small farm owners in Uganda use biogas for more of their everyday energy needs.

“This project contributes to the energy transition in Uganda by using smart solutions to create access to energy for cooking, heating and lighting, so it’s a very suitable offsetting project for our company,” says Inka Pieter, Sustainability Manager at BDR Thermea Group. “After all, our ambition is to accelerate the energy transition, and our business is about offering people comfort and smart solutions in all our markets.”

21011 20210319 Group Announcement - Group Quality Inka Pieter

“This project contributes to the energy transition in Uganda by using smart solutions to create access to energy for cooking, heating and lighting” 

Inka Pieter |Sustainability Manager BDR Thermea Group 

13Biogas_Uganda

Gold Standard for sustainability

The Uganda Biogas project installs domestic biogas systems at farms in rural and ‘peri-urban’ areas (adjacent to towns). It aims to establish a sustainable and commercially viable biogas sector in Uganda, improving farming families’ livelihoods and quality of life.

This is a Gold Standard project – meaning it features the highest levels of environmental integrity and also contributes to sustainable development. BDR Thermea is partnering on the project with Climate Neutral Group, which helps organisations reduce their climate impact.

“As well as investing in this project, we are constantly looking for additional opportunities to reduce our carbon footprint,” says Arno Vijverberg, Group Quality Director at BDR Thermea Group. “We need to work with partners to reach our sustainability goals, so we’re very happy to be doing this in alliance with Climate Neutral Group.”

In terms of sustainable benefits, the Uganda Biogas project has impact on a number of UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) that are close to the heart of BDR Thermea. It contributes to gender equality, for example, because women spend less time collecting firewood and so have more time to spend with families, find employment and socialise. It supports health and wellbeing, because using biogas means fewer deaths due to indoor pollution caused by open fire cooking, plus fewer neck, back and abdominal problems. And it benefits the climate and environment: making wood and charcoal for cooking and lighting obsolete is good for biodiversity, combats deforestation and reduces greenhouse gases, so fighting climate change.

profile_photo

“We need to work with partners to reach our sustainability goals, so we’re very happy to be doing this in alliance with Climate Neutral Group.”

  Arno Vijverberg | Quality  BDR Thermea Group

The heat pump will play a key role in the future technology mix 

How does it work?
Local construction companies install biogas ‘digesters’ in rural areas in Uganda. 

Manure is placed in the digester and converted into biogas which is piped to people’s homes, where it can be used for cooking, heating and lighting. Even if a family just owns two cows, the digesters can generate enough gas for these purposes. 
The process generates a powerful organic fertiliser as a by-product. This way, farmers can replace expensive chemical fertilisers with their own organic slurry.

 
10Biogas_Uganda
$name$name$name$name$namebaymak_logo

You can find our head office at:


Kanaal Zuid 106 | 7332 BD Apeldoorn | The Netherlands

© BDR Thermea Group 2020

© BDR Thermea Group 2020